Marvin Gentry | Special to The Grand Rapids PressGrand Vally State's Blake Smolen is tackled by Northwest Missouri State linebacker Adam Vondrak.FLORENCE, Ala. — Grand Valley State usually is the team with the
significant and sometimes stunning leads at halftime of games, but
Northwest Missouri State turned the Lakers’ world upside down.

Northwest
Missouri State scored on its first three offensive possessions of the
game, and then held off a furious Grand Valley rally for a 30-23 win in
the Division II national championship game at Braly Stadium on Saturday.

“Stunned,
yes, but we had faith we could still win it all the way to the end,”
said Grand Valley senior quarterback Brad Iciek, who found his Lakers
trailing 21-0 at halftime.

“We had to do a lot in the last 30 minutes, and we just came up short. They have a great team, and they deserved to win.”

Northwest
Missouri State (14-1) ended a four-game losing streak in the national
title game, won its third Division II national title and first since
1999. Grand Valley (13-2), winners of four national championships this
decade, lost for just the second time in a title game since 2001.

“The
defense in the first half from out standpoint, we were really
struggling and scrambling,” Grand Valley State coach Chuck Martin said.
“We’ll be kicking ourselves for a long time about the first half
because there were some things there we needed to execute better
offensively, too.

“I’ve been saying all week though, Northwest
Missouri State has great skill players, fast players and they really
came out rolling. I’m proud of our coaches and players for coming back,
but obviously we didn’t do too much right in the first half.”

Mel
Tjeerdsma, the Northwest Missouri State coach, said he was thrilled for
his team and program because it took a team effort to end the streak of
losses in Florence.

“All-in-all, the difference in the game might
have been special teams,” he said. “We had a couple of great returns, a
blocked extra point we returned for two (points) and that was huge.”

Grand
Valley’s defense eventually did make an impact. The Lakers ended the
first half with linebacker James Wojciehowski wrestling the ball away
from Northwest Missouri State running back Perry Previn at the Grand
Valley 2-yard line to prevent a score.

Then the second half started with linebacker Gary Anderson picking off a Blake Bolles pass.Iciek
hit tight end Andrew Lorman with a 8-yard touchdown pass a few plays
later, but the extra-point attempt was blocked by Northwest Missouri
State’s Kyle Sunderman and returned the length of the field by Ryan
Jones for a two-point conversion and 23-6 lead.

The Lakers continued
to rally though. Iciek hit Ryan Bass with a 33-yard touchdown pass with
6:26 remaining in the third quarter to make it 23-13.

And wide receiver Blake Smolen ran the final 2 yards of a long drive to close the gap to 23-20 with 12:26 remaining in the game.

The
Lakers had trouble dealing throughout the day with Northwest Missouri
State wide receiver Jake Soy, who ended up with nine receptions for 118
yards.

After Grand Valley allowed a 22-yard kick return on a short,
high kick and drawing a personal foul call for a late hit, Northwest
Missouri State scored on a 26-yard pass from Bolles to Soy for a 30-20
lead.

The Lakers, reeling with injuries to Lorman (collarbone),
defensive end Danny Richard (knee), and cornerback Enrique Shaw (knee)
and punter/kicker Justin Trumble (separated shoulder and injured toe)
during the game, pushed the ball down the field one more time to get a
21-yard field goal from reserve kicker Jay Jandasek.

A final drive
in the closing two minutes stalled at midfield when a Iciek pass was
tipped away by Northwest Missouri State defensive tackle Tyler Roach,
and Sunderman and linebacker Chad Kilgore knocked Iciek down while he
was attempting a fourth-down pass.

Iciek (Grandville) closed his
career throwing a career single-game high of 49 passes, and completing
a career-high 28 for 280 yards and two touchdowns.

Running back LaRon Council had 172 yards rushing on 22 carries for Northwest Missouri State.

“I’m proud that our defense made
adjustments and started making stops, and I looked out on the field and
we were playing guys we never expected to play in a national
championship game,” Martin said.

“The defense gave us some chances
and we finally made some plays on offense. We had a chance to get an
on-side kick (with 4:24 remaining), but we touched it before it went 10
yards. We didn’t cover a kickoff, our problem all season. You can’t do
all those things and beat a team like Northwest when it goes up 21
points on you.”